| Hot New Listings - | October 2nd, 2008 |
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$2,795,000/ Upper Market- Liberty Hill/ BR/BA: 4/2.5 PKG: 2 Brief Description: New expansion, remodeled on 3 levels with downtown views and terraced gardens. $2,250,000/Marina Dist/ BR/BA: 3/3.5 PKG: 2-4 Brief Description: Newly constructed home approx 3,000 sq feet of living area. It is 3 stories with views to both the North (Marin/GGB) and South (Pac. Hghts) from deck area to the top level. There is a level yard with Penthouse room/office. $1,800,000/ St. Francis Wood/ BR/BA: 5/2 PKG: 2 Brief Description: Spanish Mediterranean remodel. Elaborate detail, art-friendly home with usable garden/yard. $1,699,000 / South Beach/ BR/BA: 2/2 + loft PKG: 1 Brief Description: Never before on the open market, this rare penthouse offering features 2 full bedrooms, loft library, and a corner patio that enjoys city views and opens to both the living room and master bedroom. $1,195,000/ SOMA/ BR/BA:1/1 PKG: 2 Brief Description: Live on the top of the Heublein Building. One of 3 penthouse units w/rooftop Japanese Soaking Tub. One of a kind space and once in a lifetime opportunity. Perfect for young professional male or older male/couple looking for a crash pad, pied a terre or weekend retreat. Last chance to buy off market. Price negotiable! $1,149,000/ Russian Hill / 2 unit building. Upper 2 bdrm. Lower 1 bdrm. Remodeled top to bottom – great entry level units! Agents: $385,000/ Anza Vista / BR/BA: Studio/1 PKG: 0 easy street parking Brief Description: Elegant Victorian condo with garden entry, Civic Center views, approx 398 sq ft. Top Unit - $1,325,000ish/ BR/BA: 3+/3 PKG: 1 Brief Descripton: Unbelievable 2 Level top floor PANO view condo completed in September 2008. Multiple deeded decks, large deeded yard. Smashing views of Bay Bridge, Oakland, Bay and East Bay. Great SFH alternative…commuters dream. Can show and sell NOW. Lower Unit - $849,000ish/ BR/BA: 2/2 PKG: 1 Brief Description: New construction, lower level condo w/ some views. Giant Patio and outdoor space, open kitchen/living/dining area. New building completed in September 2008. Can show and sell NOW. |
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We have something for everyone today, in a wide range of sizes, styles, prices and neighborhoods:| Hot New Properties and Listings Not on Open Market | September 4th, 2008 |
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We have some mouth-watering Russian Hill listings this week– along with some other properties in sweet, classic San Francisco neighborhoods. $589,000 to 1,999,000/ New Construction/THE ARTANI-818 Van Ness The ARTANI is in the cultural center of the city. We have something to suit all styles and tastes with one bedroom, one bedroom plus den and two bedroom units with parking available. These homes offer sophisticated living in a beautifully appointed 52 unit building with an extraordinary roof garden, doorman and so much more. To see, please call Sharon Collier at 415-738-2608 for more details. And make sure to tell her you saw it in The Buzz! $1,799,000/ Russian Hill / Single Family with Au Pair. Quintessential San Francisco location at crest of Russian Hill. Total bedroom/bath count is 3/2.5, with 2-car parking. Big lot, terraced garden. R-3 lot, charming architecture, designated historic by League of Women Voters. Call Meredith at 415-312-1616 to get inside early– just tell her you learned about it in The Buzz. $1,165,000/ South Beach / Penthouse at The Lansing on a charming block of Rincon Hill. 2br/2ba/1-car parking. Large terrace. Full-on City views. This was a model unit and has wonderful upgrades. Call Ashley at 738-7035 to get in early– just tell him you learned about it in The Buzz. $659,000/ Excelsior Single Family/ 3BR/2BA/2-car parking. Charmer with great floor plan and nice upgrades including remodeled kitchen and new plumbing. Convenient location near Geneva. Call Mary to get in early at 738-2621. Just tell her you saw it in The Buzz. $589,000 /Haight Ashbury /1BR/1BA:1/1 . Adorable, remodeled, Victorian condo in 6-unit building. With 4 rooms total, could be used as 2-bedroom (if you really like each other :)). This is a winner for the price. Call Sharon to get in early at 415-269-2268. Tell her you saw it in the Buzz. $2,000,000 / South Beach /200 Brannan penthouse. 2BR/2BA/2-car parking. 1500+ square feet. Great floor plan, high end finishings. Huge private terrace, wood burning fireplace, City and Bridge views. Call Sharon to see early at 415-269-2268. We also have an unusual Buyer need for a 2-unit view building or house that’s suitable for extended family and can be partitioned into two homes. Our price range is 6-7M. We will consider properties in any of San Francisco’s better neighborhoods, including Cole Valley and Sea Cliff. The upper living quarters requires the view and needs at least 2-bedrooms. The lower portion of the home needs at least 3-bedrooms. Please call Sharon if you have/know of something at 415-269-2268. |
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| A Room for a Few– | August 24th, 2008 |
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Last week there was a great real estate rental story in the SF Weekly about the Tiger House– a seven bedroom home in Cole Valley, right where Belevedere dead ends into Frederick. It’s known as the Tiger House because the whole facade is covered with a painting of a fantastic Tiger sitting in the jungle. If you’ve seen it, you can definitely picture it in your mind right now. The SF Weekly story is about the fluid twenty-something bunch that lives there. The anchor tenant is Dan, the owners’ son. Known as the “Danlord, he oversees manages the tenant turnover. Whenever he posts a vacancy, the response is overwhelming and competition to get in is very tough. The alchemy of personalities is very important to the Danlord, and you have to be very funny, clever, smart and cool in all the right ways. When I first moved to San Francisco in 1986 and needed cheap rent I dreamed of finding a group household with funny, clever roommates. My life would be like a series of “Friends” episodes where we would share meals, be there to greet one another when we got home, and never, ever leave dirty dishes in the sink. My first place was a room in a giant flat in the Duboce Triangle with four roommates. I got hardwood floors, ceilings that went up forever, and little plaster cherubs nestled in the corners of my big bay window (I’ve never seen anything like them since). The downside was the careless sloppy people I lived with. My low point came at 2:00 am about four months after I’d moved in, when they decided to use a chain saw on some furniture because they had run out of wood for the fireplace. After that, two old high school friends invited me to live with them in a flat across town on Filbert, between Octavia and Gough. It was a good sized three bedroom, built in the 1960s with a lovely back yard that we were allowed to look at but not use– it belonged to Mrs. Chin, who lived with her husband downstairs. Mr. and Mrs. Chin were retired, old-fashioned and extremely noise sensitive. To this day I can’t figure out why they decided to rent the place above them to three young women. They peeked between the blinds each time we passed their kitchen window on our way upstairs, and Mrs. Chin’s days were spent banging a broomstick on the ceiling whenever more than one person walked across the living room at a time. My third shared rental was my last, in a two bedroom Victorian apartment on Carl Street. The trim on the outside and inside was thick with layers of paint and there was wall-to-wall beige shag carpeting with insanely ugly kitchen linoleum. We also overlooked the N Judah and there was a power surge each time a train went by. But it had a formal dining room and for the first time I could really entertain and try recipes like pot roast with Lipton’s Onion Soup Mix dumped over it. The market for rental housing has been getting tighter and tighter over the past few years and much of it is tied to the current real estate market. In my little real estate world, I see scores of renters who are staying put because they either can’t get a mortgage or are choosing to wait until the market bottoms out. I’m also hearing from friends with grown children who have scored big-paying jobs and are moving to the City. These kids can afford the big rents that drive the cost of housing up, making competition for reasonably priced rental housing even more fierce. Other renters stay put because they have cheap rent-controlled housing that they don’t want to give up. Then there are owners of smaller buildings who choose to keep their units vacant. I can think of two clients right now who have big flats sitting empty– they want to keep their options open in case they want or need to sell, and the value of their property goes down once they rent them out. I’m sure if I were to poll my associates at Paragon, I would come up with at least twenty other landlords who are doing the same thing. If I were a twenty-something seeking a rental today, I would probably be a stressed-out wreck. So kudos to any of you trying to find a decent place to rent at an affordable price today. Anyone willing to try it must be incredibly courageous, creative and resilient. |
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| Prices for The Hayes Condominiums in San Francisco - Effective August 08 | August 18th, 2008 |
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I frequently get updates on pricing for different new home projects. Even The Hayes is located at Page and Gough, three blocks from the Hayes Here are details on pricing I got from the Hayes this afternoon. These Featured Homes
Please call The Buzz if you want more inside scoop on |
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| Introducing You to Some of my Cool Clients | August 15th, 2008 |
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Over my 22 years in the business of helping people buy and sell real estate, I’ve worked with everyone from artists and entrepreneurs, to attorneys and whiz-bang computer geniuses. Here are links to some of their websites– www.johngriffinphotography.com www.lesartssf.com Michel McIntosh |
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| The Country’s Best Sellers Markets | June 25th, 2008 |
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Forbes also checked the change in sales rate over the last year to measure tightening or loosening of the market. And they factored in a measure of price stability to prevent the list from being a rundown of upstart markets. San Francisco ranked second on Forbes list. Like all of the best-performing markets we have barriers to over building, which keeps inventory relatively tight. Our obstacles to creating new housing stock are wide-ranging, from NIMBY politics to our geography– surrounded by water on three sides, there’s little land to build on. Forbes also cited our strong ‘in-migration’ (who invents these terms?) stemming from local economic strength. The bio-tech and health development in Mission Bay promises to bring in enough people to fill all the new condos and apartments in that corner of the City. In-migration is also a factor in the strong Raleigh, NC housing market, which came in No. 1 on the list. Moderate growth and disciplined building over the last five years prevented the Raleigh market from developing a significant glut. A strong local economy has also helped contribute to the city’s healthy 1.6% vacancy rate. A strong economy and ‘in-migration’ also helped Austin rank high as a seller’s market. A 1.5% vacancy rate, like Austin’s, is where the national average stood during the most recent housing boom. In other words, that low a vacancy rate indicates a housing market at close to full capacity. Some cities that might have made the list didn’t because of a lack of data. Seattle for example has the lowest vacancy rate in the country, a strong economy and a limited supply of land to build on. But because some hard data was lacking however, Forbes was unable to include Seattle in the study. |
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Recently Forbes Magazine attempted to judge which cities had the best Sellers Markets. Their main measurement was ‘days of inventory,’ which is a simple supply vs. demand analysis of housing stock: At the current rate of sales, how long would it take to sell off the inventory whether single family homes or condos? If that measure comes back high, houses sit on the market longer. If it is low, the market is tightening. This is good news for the seller.| San Francisco’s 10 Commandments | June 24th, 2008 |
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1. Thou shalt always vote on principal and not political party 2. Thou shall move your family to the suburbs when your children are of school age 3. Thou shalt always have an earthquake preparedness kit in your home 4. Thou shalt drive a hybrid car 5. Thou shalt always yield to a bike if driving, and a ped if driving/biking 6. Thou shalt 7. Thou shall hate the Dodgers like the devil himself/herself. Unless of course you are a satanist. Then thou shall hate the Dodgers like god himself/herself 8. Thou shalt be tolerant, to the point of absurdity 9. Thou shalt pickup after your pooch, homeless denizen, drunk buddy defecates 10. Thou shalt keep your winter clothes out of storage all summer long Commandment 2 is a sad fact of life. Sadly I’m not up to speed on Commandment 3 (need to work on that). I began to obey Commandment 4 six months ago when I bought a Nissan Altima Hybrid. I tried the Prius, but (forgive me Prius devotees) it was like driving a tin can. My husband is a strict adherent to Commandment 7. This makes up for my indifference towards it. Please feel free to add/edit in comments |
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The following rules for living in SF come to us courtesy of Richard Ault, who posted them on | Investor Buyers Circle Back To San Francisco Bay Area Property– | May 29th, 2008 |
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This article comes from SF Gate’s May 9 edition. I bold-faced and italicized some of its most important points: It’s the worst time since the Great Depression to buy real estate, right? Not so, according to some individual investors, who think the market slump has made selected pockets of the Bay Area more desirable than they’ve been in years. “Look at this,” said Dan Shiner of Mill Valley, one such investor who was en route with his agent to visit properties for sale in Santa Rosa last week. “This duplex sold for $599,000 two years ago and now it’s listed for $414,900. That’s why people like me are coming out of the woodwork.” Shiner, who works in finance, said he avoided investing in local real estate for years because prices were so ridiculously high. But the current market has drawn him back in because suddenly he sees relative bargains. Last week he looked at a dozen Sonoma County duplex and triplexes, and had offers accepted on two. “The way prices have come down is absolutely amazing,” he said. “I think it’s a phenomenal opportunity for the small investor to buy their first rental properties.” While many buyers, whether potential residents or investors, are staying on the sidelines, largely from fear that prices will continue to plummet, some private investors think there’s no time like the present to take advantage of a market in freefall. Unlike the “fix and flip” speculators of recent years, these investors are in it for the long haul. They see chances to be cash-flow positive - which had been a pipe dream in the Bay Area without putting down wads of cash - and to build appreciation over many years. Overall, homes sales have plunged to record lows. However, the percentage of investors in the market is edging up, according to DataQuick Information Systems, a real estate information service. “The reason you (have) seen investors coming in, at least in small ways, is that in certain neighborhoods across the Bay Area and across (the) state, you’ve had significant depreciation and it now makes sense for some investors,” said Andrew LePage, a DataQuick analyst. “They’re adding to what little demand exists out there by snapping up foreclosure resales because some of those have bigger discounts. The savvy ones probably realize that few, if any, of us are going to time the bottom correctly.” Credit still tough Jeffrey Lerman, a San Rafael attorney who specializes in real estate investor issues, said many investors are still waiting for a bottom. “We are seeing some contrarian-type investors who are looking for and doing deals in this economy,” he said. “The vast majority are not. They follow the herd.” Those investors who do plunge in are “returning to fundamentals,” running the type of due-diligence equations that seem obvious now but got forgotten in the frenzied years when speculation was king, Lerman said. Advice for investors – Find locations where depreciation rules. David Campbell is bullish on Vallejo. That’s not because he owns a real estate company, Fourth Dimension, there, because most of his business is out of state. Instead, he said, it’s because the town has some neighborhoods where property values are down 50 percent from their peak, while its long-term growth fundamentals - universities, medical center, jobs in heavy and light industry, transit, military training and a planned 200-acre cancer treatment center - remain strong. He thinks the city’s brush with bankruptcy could be a benefit if it negotiates better contracts with its public employees. “A Vallejo three-bedroom, two-bath single-family home can be purchased for $200,000 and will rent for $1,400 a month,” he said. “Vallejo studio condos can be purchased for $75,000 and will rent for $750 a month.” At 20 percent down and an interest rate in the high 6 percent range, those properties would break even or generate modest cash flow, he said. – Don’t count on chichi areas. Amit May, principal with May Properties, a real estate development and investment company in San Francisco, said in an e-mail that deals in the city are few. “We have not seen drastic price reductions,” May wrote. “I still think this is a good time to buy residential property in San Francisco, such as two- to six-unit (buildings), but the problem is that the inventory is so low now, there are not a lot of bargains.” Investors uniformly emphasized that areas with high foreclosure rates have the best bargains. That means Solano County, Richmond, Rodeo, eastern Contra Costa County, parts of San Jose and parts of Oakland. – Consider cash flow. Most investors said they are unwilling to swallow big monthly differences between a property’s expenses and income. Realistically, few single-family homes in the Bay Area will generate significant cash flow, assuming down payments of 20 percent or so. (Obviously, the more cash one puts down, the greater potential for positive cash flow.) Even the pockets that have huge drops in price take some careful calculations to make sure the rental demand is there. But small multifamily properties with two or more units do have potential for making money, several investors said, while single-family homes at least might break even. Properties bought under distressed circumstances, such as those sold at the huge foreclosure auctions happening every couple of months, may be sufficiently cheap to bring in income. For those who really want cash flow without significant money down, looking outside the Bay Area might be the best bet. “If you go out to the Central Valley, Modesto and those areas, you can flow cash at 10 percent down,” said Michael Yesk, regional manager and attorney for IPX1031, a company that handles tax-deferred exchanges on investment properties. – Factor in demand for rentals. All the folks losing their homes to foreclosure and all those potential homeowners who decide to wait for the market to hit bottom have to live somewhere, many investors point out. They expect that to increase demand and rates for rental housing - as has already been happening in recent month. Shiner of Mill Valley said he likes properties that already have long-term tenants in place. That rules out foreclosures, however, because banks seem to uniformly evict tenants when they take possession of a foreclosure. – Look at prices versus interest rates. Investors acknowledge that they probably could get some properties cheaper by waiting longer - but then they risk paying higher interest rates, which would wipe out those savings. For instance, a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage for $300,000 at 7 percent is $1,995 per month. If the mortgage amount were 10 percent lower - $270,000 - but the investor is paying 8 percent interest, the monthly payment is almost identical at $1,981. On the other hand, investors who have large cash reserves to plunk down might be better served to wait for even lower prices. – Buy from the bank. A huge percentage of properties for sale in recent months are bank-owned foreclosures. These lenders are the ultimate motivated sellers. Still, bankers are not fools. Anyone making a lowball offer should be prepared with information on very recent comparable sales in the neighborhood to justify the price. Some bank-owned properties are generating bidding wars - admittedly usually for less than the asking- but that gives the banks more of an edge. Bank-owned foreclosures can have maintenance issues. The previous homeowner may have stopped making repairs when money got tight. – Make sure you can afford it. While this may seem obvious, lots of folks didn’t think it through in 2005 and 2006, which is why there are now so many foreclosures. Investors need to be sure they can hold on to property for the long term, probably at least five years. Putting extra oomph into that equation is that investment loans, unlike those on a primary residence, usually are “recourse loans.” That means the bank can come after your personal assets if you renege. And investors should not expect a return to the no-money-down days, which means they already have cash on the line as soon as they buy. Shiner, the Mill Valley man investing in Sonoma, said he has a long-term horizon. “As Warren Buffett says, lethargy bordering on sloth - that’s me,” he said. “The fact that the market is not turning around in the next year isn’t significant. If you wait long enough, the market has always gone up since the days of the caveman.” |
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| New Listings Not Yet On Market | May 29th, 2008 |
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$1,700,000 / Noe Valley/ Updated 3br/1.5 ba Edwardian house on Noe Valley’s most coveted tree-lined blocks. Two south facing decks and great views over Noe. Sneak previews available starting 6/4. First open 6/10. can $1,395,000/ Potrero Hill/ 2 Units / 2+ car parking. Northeast slope. Good block. Unique property presently used as commercial space. Both units are 2br/1ba. Both are sunny, have nice updates, and good original detail. Flexible floor plan includes additional space over garage. $1,195,000/ Eureka Valley/ 2-level Edwardian house with 3br/1ba. Great period detail. New kitchen and bath. Small yard. Garageable. $1,095,000 /Cole Valley / 2br/1ba upper condo flat in lovely Edwardian building. Chef’s kitchen, renovated bath and French Doors off living room leading out to shared backyard. $989,000 / Outer Sunset / Moon Doggie Delight!– massive 5br/3ba house just steps to beach and park. Big space, big remodel done with taste and style. 3br/2ba on main level, legal 2br/1ba with family room down that opens to patio and yard. $875,000 / South Beach / Brick and timber live/work loft with private bedroom and home office. Two baths. Steps to Financial District. Beautiful courtyard building. Has parking. $775,000/ SOMA/ Museum Parc condo with granite/stainless kitchen. 2br/2ba. Great location just steps to Yerba Buena, MOMA and City’s best shopping! $648,000/ Westlake (Daly City)/ Gorgeous, Henry Doelger home with four bedrooms and two baths. Fully detached. 1400 square feet. Bedrooms all on one level. Woodburning fireplace, separate dining area. Pocket Listings: $850,000 / Pacific Heights / Beautifully remodeled 2br/2ba unit at The Sutterfield. Southeast view brings sunshine all day long. |
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$2,195,000 /South Beach / BR/BA: 2/3 PKG: 2 Amazing 3,000 square foot NY style loft just steps to Ball Park. Small boutique building– conversion warehouse. Unique Property! | This American Life Entertains and Explains Mortgage Madness | May 21st, 2008 |
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Ira Glass has produced a downright entertaining piece for NPR’s This American Life about America’s descent through the circles of hell into this mortgage mess. I’ve read and re-read endless explanations about mortgage backed securities, tranches and hedge funds– and still find the how, what, where and why confusing. Through story telling and simple explanations of complicated concepts, 
